CPJ Journalist Security Blog

May 2013 Archives

One day, every journalism school in the United States and
beyond will offer a full three-credit, 15-week course in digital safety, along
with more advanced classes. But that day has not yet come. Only a year ago, Alysia
Santo reported in the Columbia Journalism Review that no
American journalism school offered formal digital safety training. A number
of groups, including CPJ, have tried to fill the void with digital security
guides. This week, the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University
added to the resource stockpile with the publication of a guide that I've
written, Digital
Security Basics for Journalists.

The working environment for journalists and
media workers in Kenya is increasingly hostile, with at least 91 percent of
journalists at local media outlets having faced security threats in the course
of their work, a new study has revealed. The harassment of and attacks against journalists,
with nearly 40 percent coming from politicians, indicates a need for urgent
attention from both state and non-state actors if press freedom is to be
guaranteed in the country.

Gerardo Ortega's news and
talk show on DWAR in Puerto Princesa, Philippines, went off as usual on the
morning of January 24, 2011. Ortega, like many radio journalists in the
Philippines, was outspoken about government corruption, particularly as it
concerned local mining issues. His show over, Ortega left the studios and
headed to a local clothing store to do some shopping. There, he was shot in the
back of the head. His murder underlines the characteristics and security
challenges common to many of the killings documented as part of CPJ's new Impunity
Index: A well-known local journalist whose daily routines were easily
tracked, Ortega had been followed and killed by a hired gunman. He had been
threatened many times before in response to his tough political commentary, a
pattern that shows up time and again on CPJ's Impunity Index.